Ragtime

[Jim Nollman]

Because ragtime tunes are often a little more intricate and "notey" than other music, there is attendancy for them to become show-off tunes, where the tune is played super fast.

For me this destroys the whole ragtime feeling. It can be an impressive demonstration of dexterity, but it loses musicality. .

Yes, totally agree with this. I produced a CD of ragtime music a few years back. The pianist had been playing the tunes all summer at a local resort, almost entirely at a fast speed. In prep for our sessions, he'd been listening to 6 or 8 other recordings of ragtime, and so he came into my studio believing that to join the ranks of these heroes, he needed to speed it up even more because, apparently that's what every other pianist did.

But from the start, my client struggled with the speed. So I suggested that he slow the whole thing down to ballad speed. I told him to go study the notorious Joshua Rivkin recording of Scott Joplin tunes, which is famously slow in a conscious effort to emphasize the melodies.

While the melodies are uniformly gorgeous, the modulating transitions between the parts are an expression of creative genius.

My client agreed to my suggestion. For then on, we focused on the metaphor of slowing it all down enough so both of us could plainly hear the individual notes piling on top of one another to form melodies.

The completed CD quickly sold out its first edition. I don't know if the pianist did a second edition. I just searched itunes for it, but was unable to find it.

One other thing worth mentioning. I recall a few years back, there was a long thread here, a discussion of how ragtime had been clearly influenced by hornpipe melodies. For just two examples, if you listen to Garfield's Hornpipe and Minny Foster's Hornpipe, you are going to hear lots of lines used 20 or 30 years later by Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake.

[Jim Garber]

A big thanks to you, Nick!! I am looking fwd to more of your music.

[Kevin Stevens]

Thanks for that Nick! I was looking at your last CD just the other day and just downloaded it, this prompted me to get it done!

[Matthew Keeler]

Here's a little shameless self-promotion, but you ragtime cats might like it: http://matthewkeeler.bandcamp.com/track/plow-boy-hop

[Matthew Keeler]

Here's another'n: http://matthewkeeler.bandcamp.com/tr...ll-morgans-gal

[stevejay]

I wish there were more ragtime tef files over at mandozine. The rags there are more "country" rags like Stone's Rag, but I'd like more Joplin and Joseph Lamb etc.
Ragtime and mandolin are like bacon & eggs, it's convincing and has a history.

[Jim Yates]

Our group, The Maple Leaf Champions Jug Band do a medley of Mandolin King Rag and Georgia Camp Meeting that's a lot of fun to play and lays out really well on the mandolin.

[nrobinso]

Jim, That Maple Leaf Champions medley sounds great... can you post a link to any recordings? -- Nick Robinson

[Jim Yates]

Sorry Nick, we've never recorded that. I think the only tunes we have on the internet are three that we recorded for a demo EP to get some gigs. They're on http://www.myspace.com/mapleleafchampionjugband, but I'm not sure if you have to be signed into myspace to listen to them. We have our first CD and the finished copies arrived just before Christmas.
I learned the Mandolin King Rag from a Humber River Valley Boys record and I think Ted learned Georgia Camp Meeting from an Eric Nagler record. We have been playing this medley for years...long before the Maple Leaf Champions Jug Band came into existence.

[Mike Bunting]

Mandolin King Rag is on an album by the Even Dozen Jug Band, featuring a young David Grisman and Maria Muldaur among others. There was a tab for it in an early issue of Mandolin World News.
http://prostopleer.com/tracks/50273319BbN